"It was a family decision to take a separate path from my brother," Tyrell said in a phone interview Tuesday, adding there were no hard feelings for his departure.

In a tweet Robinson wrote, "I appreciate and love everything Oregon has taught me but God has another plan for me."

Robinson, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound San Diego native, played in nine games as a true freshman and had 12 tackles as an inside linebacker. His exit will be mitigated by an experienced linebacking unit that returns senior inside starters Derrick Malone and Rodney Hardrick along with veteran backups Rahim Cassell and Joe Walker.

Asked if he intended to transfer closer to home, Robinson said his next destination isn't known.

"I'm wide open right now," Robinson said.

Robinson was a four-star recruit who also considered playing basketball at Oregon, and that athleticism allowed him to grasp UO's defense early in his first fall on campus. In November, after Malone was limited against Utah due to a shoulder injury, then-defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti remarked of Robinson, "If he knew what we were doing right now, he could probably start."

Instead, he'll start over somewhere new, while his brother remains at Oregon.